The present invention relates to a disposable diaper for absorption and containment bodily discharges.
There has already been proposed an open-type disposable diaper defining, in a longitudinal direction, front and rear waist regions and a crotch region extending between these two waist regions, wherein a pair of tape fasteners extending in a transverse direction and used to connect the front and rear waist regions with each other are attached to side flaps of the rear waist region, respectively, and a target tape is attached to the front waist region so that the tape fasteners may be releasably anchored on the target tape (See Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1997-38139, hereinafter referred to as “Citation”).
The tape fasteners are formed from a fibrous nonwoven fabric made of a plurality of thermoplastic synthetic resin fibers entangled one with another. The tape fasteners respectively have fixed portions adapted to be permanently bonded to respective transversely outer ends of the side flaps in the rear waist region and free portions extending outward from the respective fixed portions in the transverse direction. The free portions of the respective tape fasteners are provided on respective inner surf aces thereof with hooks constituting a mechanical fastener. The target tape is provided in the form of a rectangular strip being relatively long in the transverse direction and formed from a bulky nonwoven fabric made of a plurality of thermoplastic synthetic resin fibers entangled one with another. To put the diaper disclosed in Citation on the wearer's body, the side flaps of the rear waist region are placed upon the outer side of the front waist region and then the free portions of the tape fasteners are anchored on the target tape through the intermediary of the hooks to connect the front and rear waist regions with each other. Parent or care personnel puts underwear such as pants or skirt on the wearer having the diaper thereon. Movement of the wearer's body having the diaper put thereon causes the outer surface of the tape fastener and the inner surface of the underwear to rub together.
In the diaper disclosed in Citation, the tape fasteners are formed from the fibrous nonwoven fabric made of a plurality of thermoplastic synthetic resin fibers and the outer surface of each tape fastener is not smooth but relatively rough. Therefore, a certain sliding friction is exerted upon the tape fastener by the underwear as the outer surface of the tape fastener and the inner surface of the underwear rub together. Such sliding friction may cause torsion and/or turning up of the free portion of the tape fastener. In this diaper, the torsion and/or turning up of the free portion of the tape fastener nay be exerted upon the tape fastener and the target tape as shearing force and/or peel force intending to disengage the tape fastener and the target tape from each other. With a consequence, the tape fastener and the target tape may often be unintentionally disengaged from each other.